Ciann L. Wilson (she/her) is of Afro-, Indo- and Euro- Jamaican ancestry. She has over a decade of experience working within African, Caribbean and Black communities across the greater Toronto area first as a youth programmer and now as a health researcher. Ciann is an Assistant Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University where her areas of interest build off her community-engaged work to include critical race theory, anti-/de-colonial theory, African diasporic and Indigenous community health, HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive wellbeing and community-based research. Her body of work aims to utilize research as an avenue for sharing the stories and realities of African diasporic, Indigenous and racialized peoples and improving the health and wellbeing of these communities.

Deana Leahy is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University.  Deana’s research has over time interrogated the politics of health education – from policy formations to  everyday pedagogies.  She is currently involved in a number of funded research projects that explore the learning affordances of new pedagogical spaces and approaches in health education.

Jen Gilbert is a Professor of Education at York University. Gilbert is author of Sexuality in School: The Limits of Education (University of Minnesota Press, 2014) and collaborator on The Beyond Bullying Project, an LGBTQ+ storytelling and research study in high schools. Gilbert’s research focuses on LGBTQ+ students, teachers, and families; sex education; and youth studies.

Astrology sign: Scorpio

Quote: Curiosity is not trivial; it is the respect one life pays to another. It is the largeness of mind and heart that refuses to be bounded by decorum or by desperation. It is the hardest to keep alive in the times it is most needed, the times of hatred, of instability, of attack. Surely these are such times.”― Joan Nestle, The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader

Quote: Dreams, hopes, forward, forward. — BTS, Young Forever

Dr. Laina Y. Bay-Cheng is Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Development at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work. For the past 20 years, she has used empirical and conceptual analyses to expose the systemic roots of young women’s sexual vulnerability, namely interlocked misogyny, racism, economic injustice, and age-based oppression. In her scholarship and community partnerships, she advocates for policies and practices that honor youth rights, autonomy, and dignity.

Astrology sign: Cancer

Quote: “There is nothing perfect, there is only life”

Astrology Sign: Virgo

Quote: “It is in collectivities that we find reservoirs of hope and optimism” — Angela Davis

Astrology sign: Cancer

Quote: “Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong, it’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.” – G.D. Anderson

Astrology Sign: Cancer

Quote: “We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.” – Joseph Campbell.

Astrology Sign:  Cancer

Quote: “if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.” — James Clear